The Hunter
by Toramonger
Summary: Ichigo's been feeling and acting a little weird since the Shattered Shaft, luckily for him Kisuke has an explanation. Unluckily he's not likely to like that explanation. Harem fic M/F,M/M, and possible F/F in future.


The Hunter

This is my first Bleach Fan Fiction, hopefully it turns out well…Oo…I fret over the oddest things ne? 'giggles at self'

This story begins at the very beginning of the rescue Rukia ark. This story is rated M for a reason, all graphic stuff will be held on AFF under the same title. I will have the story posted there as well but it will have extra chapters for any 'scenes' that wouldn't be appropriate for here. I will post at the end of each chapter if there's anything extra over there.

Note: This story is not all romance, there will be plenty of action as I spin the Bleach world around on its axis

**Warnings:** this is a harem fic, with multiple parings both M/F and M/M…with the possibility of F/F in the further (haven't decided yet) so yeah while there won't be anything more then some petting over here there will be male on male kissing and such in the future so if that doesn't interest you you might not want to continue reading. You have been warned!

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing more then my own creativity, I have no association with the creators of Bleach.

"Speaking"

_Thinking_

And it beings – chapter 1

Ichigo paced back and forth. The fact that he'd been at this for some time was made apparent by the deep furrow he'd worn away in the sandy ground. Uryu sighed and adjusted his glasses before saying "Would you cut it out Kurosaki. You're beginning to grate on my nerves."

The orange haired boy whirled around to scowl at his dark haired friend "Shut it Uryu!" he growled out at the other.

Chad watched in his usual silence. They were moments away from charging into the Soul Society and attempting what could in all likely hood be a suicide mission…but the silent giant would never voice such thought out loud.

The others were well aware of how much of a risk they were taking, but none of that mattered. They were going to rescue Rukia, though they all seemed to have their own reasons for going if they failed Rukia would die, and he himself would rather die trying to save her then to sit back and do nothing to prevent it.

So he stood were he was, watching as Orihime attempted to keep Ichigo and Ishida from each other's throats as the dark haired quincy opened his mouth to respond to the irritated substitute shinigami.

"Come on guys! Lets not fight with each other!" The ever bubbly girl said with a goofy grin waving her arms about.

Uryu made a humph sound before crossing his arms over his chest. Though he would never admit it to anyone the dark haired quincy was as anxious to go at the others were, but the orange haired boy's pacing was beginning to grate on his already thin nerves. He was reminded of a clip he'd run across once while flipping channels. A clip of a wild animal that had been caught and imprisoned.

Like the substitute shinigami the animal had paced furiously growling at any who got too close to it. Not to mention the quincy had felt a noticeable shift in the other's Reiatsu since he had regained his shinigami powers.

It felt raw, almost..feral and left the quincy on edge…especially sense he was almost certain the orange haired youths Reiatsu had been…touching his own…and for that matter he was fairly certain it had been interacting with Sado, and Orihime's…thought the other two seemed oblivious to it.

Ichigo grumbled under his breath before turning away from his companions and resuming his pacing once more. Ever since he'd made it out of the Shattered Shaft with his power's restored he'd felt…off. It was almost as if there was something crawling under his skin. It felt almost like he wasn't in his own skin anymore…which might make a bit more sense…if he only experienced it when he was in sprit form…but when he quit literally was in his own skin the feeling persisted.

He ground his teeth together in agitation he wanted to get to soul society already…no he needed to go there. He felt driven, by much more then his need to repay a debt…and the more he thought about it the angrier he got. They had taken Rukia, how dare they! She was one of his! He would rip them to shreds!

"Ichigo?" Orihime's voice broke threw the orange haired boys' internal rampage, her worry evident in her tone.

Shaking his head Ichigo took a calming breath, on of many he'd found himself needing to take in the last few days. Taking another breath he stepped to the busty female and resting his right hand on the back of her head pulled her into his chest. "Everything will be okay." He growled out before releasing the startled girl and going back to his pacing.

_Well…that was…odd…_ Chad thought with a slow blink as the other male resumed his pacing as if he hadn't don anything out of the ordinary…Orihime seemed to take it, like everything else, in stride and shook it off with a big grin.

Kisuke fluttered his fan in front of him. He'd finished the preparations necessary to open the gate. He had turned to give the group their final set of instructions only to witness the orange haired youth's odd behavior.

"Oh my oh my. This is an unexpected development." He said jumping down from were he'd been setting up the gate.

"Is it ready?" Ichigo snapped as the man approached him.

Kisuke smiled brightly and said "Yep sure is! Just waiting for me to say the words to activate it."

"Good. What are you waiting on, open it already then." Ichigo growled out swinging his gaze to were the foundation of the gate rested ready and waiting.

"Always so impatient! I'll open it in just a moment." Kisuke responded with a flutter of his fan as he observed the teenage boy threw narrowed eyes.

When the substitute shinigami swung his now narrowed gaze back to the blonde he felt his whole body tense up as the older male casually walked up to the rest of the group. He watched with narrowed eyes as the other's arm casually brushed against Chad's.

Kisuke paused in his advance as Ichigo growled low at him. The orange haired youth's lips had pulled away from his teeth as his already wild reiatsu seemed to tremble around the group almost as if waiting for a signal to attack.

Kisuke hummed to himself from behind his fan. Before slowly continuing to walk forward, this time allowing his shoulder to bump into the confused quincy. Ichigo's growl dropped in its intensity as he slowly lowered his gums to once more cover his teeth and simply kept his piercing gaze narrowed on the blonde haired man.

"Interesting, interesting…now Ichigo tell me, just hypothetically speaking. How do you think you'd react if I, say…touched Orihime-chan?" the shop keeper asked.

"Would someone care to inform the rest of us just what exactly it is the two of you are doing?" Ishada demanded adjusting his glasses in anger.

"Just a moment Ishada-kun, now answer my questioning Ichigo…you'd go right for my throat wouldn't you?" Kisuke sated snapping his fan closed.

"That's ridiculous! Ichigo-kun would never…!" Orihime started to say only for the orange haired boy to interrupt her.

"Your right…but how did you know that?..." Ichigo said in a gruff voice..he hadn't wanted to admit it…but the other had been right that it how he would have reacted…he didn't understand the overwhelming urge…and quite frankly he was beginning to scare himself.

Kisuke hummed and said "Well the good news is I know why your acting like this!"

Ishada ground his teeth together and said "And the bad news? Please tell me he's not going insane…I'd hate to have to put him down."

Ichigo growled at the quincy and said "Oh ha ha, that's funny cape boy as if you could."

"Oh I'd' be more then happy to demonstrate just how easy it would be, shinigami." Ishada responded adjusting his glasses.

"Well mostly shinigami, anyway." Kisuke added drawing everyone's attention back to himself once more.

"….mostly?" Chad said with a slow blink, voicing the question now on everyone's mind.

"Kisuke…is there something your not telling us?" Yoruichi asked speaking up for the first time since being introduced to Ichigo upon the groups arrival.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes and ground out "Yeah Kisuke…spill it…"

Kisuke laughed almost nervously before saying "Well…it seems the Shattered shaft didn't quite work how it was intended too…"

"Shattered Shaft?...why does that not sound good?" Uryu asked no one in particular crossing his arms over his chest.

"Ah I suppose I should explain what it's supposed to do first? Kisuke asked before laughing and continuing without waiting for an answer.

"Now normally when someone undergoes the Shattered Shaft one of two things happen…they become a hollow…or they become a shinigami…with and inner hollow." The blonde man said fluttering his fan open and closed.

"Inner hollow?...the hell is that!" Ichigo demanded a knot forming in his stomach…it sounded bad.

"Now now its actually not that bad! In a few months you would have ducked it out with him and become a visored…or a hollow…" Kisuke added hastily.

"…would have?..." Chad dead paned at the same time as Uryu spoke up.

"And what is a visored?" the glasses wearing youth demanded almost angrily.

Kisuke nodes and said "A visored is a shinigami with hollow like powers. They are fairly formidable in battle…sadly Kurosaki-kun will not be becoming one."

"And why exactly is that Kisuke?" Yoruichi asked narrowing bright eyes.

"Well..because our Ichigo here didn't get an inner hollow…he got an inner hunter!" Kisuke exclaimed happily.

The End.

…I feel kind of mean to end the first chapter here…but it was just begging for a cliffy…hehe I promise to get the next chapter up as soon as possible 'hides blank paper from viewer' hehe okay anyway on to some explanations!

I enjoy using Japanese in my stories if I use any words I will have a Translations portion down here to translate them, so far I only used Kun and Chan which are suffix's added to the end of either a boy or girl's name, its also much more common to use a last name rather then a first name in Japan, as a first name is reserved for those more familiar with you so that's why you see a lot of Kurosaki/Ishada used.

Oh and I used the bleach wiki to find most of my 'facts' so yeah I'm not making this stuff up its strait from the story:

Reiatsu - _Spiritual Pressure - _the pressure that a person's Reiryoku exerts

Reiryoku -_Spiritual Power -_the amount of energy a being has stored within their body or soul

Note: I only included the Reiryoku explanation because it was mentioned in the Reiatsu one, I have to admit I was a bit confused by this myself as to which one would be the energy rolling off Ichigo, so I rewatched the ark and decided to go with reiatsu, you'll find out more about why Ichigo's is acting funny next chapter.

Shattered Shaft: it's the whole thing Ichigo goes threw to regain his shinigami powers…not just after he was tossed down the..well…shaft apparently

And now a bit of entertainment…I…was so tempted to use this in the actual story…even if it didn't make any sense at all…'giggles madly'

**Omake!**

Shaking his head Ichigo took a calming breath, one of many he'd found himself needing to take in the last few days. Taking another breath he stepped to the silent giant and rested his right hand on the back of his head pulling him down into his chest. "Everything will be okay." He growled out before releasing the startled boy and going back to his pacing.

_Well…that was…odd…_ Chad thought with a slow blink as the other male resumed his pacing as if he hadn't done anything out of the ordinary…

Alright that just about raps everything up here so I'll be moving on to attempt to figure out were chapter two goes in the grand scheme of things…oh and I have a lovely beta by the name of Jan 2.0, she's really busy right now but she will eventual beta this even though she doesn't watch/read Bleach (I've tried to convert her but she resists!) isn't she awesome like that?

Please leave me a review I'd love to hear from you guys/gals, flames will be ignored.

AFF Extra Chapter: None, if there is one I'll put the chapter name here

Jan 2.0: Ish very busy right now will get back to us when she can


End file.
